Optical sensing systems and methods are highly desirable due to their inherent Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and High Intensity Radiated Field (HIRF) immunity. Optical sensing designs aimed at applications such as structural health monitoring currently involve placing optical sensors in direct contact with an environment or object to be sensed. Some sensing applications such as proximity sensing may currently require use of light emission and detection, direct physical contact, or direct physical obstruction by optical sensing systems and methods in order to function optimally. In at least such applications, current optical sensing systems and methods may generally have low reliability in an environment comprising obscurants, obstructions, debris, and potential for physical deformation.